The present invention relates to a battery holding device.
Batteries have advantages such as excellent portability, and therefore are used as power supplies for various apparatuses. Recently, miniaturization of an electronic apparatus rapidly advances, and many portable electronic apparatuses in which batteries are used as a power supply have been developed.
On the other hand, when batteries are used for a predetermined period of time, their lives are expired, and therefore must be replaced with new ones or recharged. Consequently, batteries of which lives are expired are detached from an electronic apparatus, and fresh batteries are mounted in the electronic apparatus.
Usually, batteries are housed in a battery holding device of an electronic apparatus. A battery holding device includes: positive conductive terminals which are to be contacted with the positive terminals of batteries to introduce the positive potential; and negative conductive terminals which are to be contacted with the negative terminals of the batteries to introduce the negative potential. In many battery holding devices, each of negative conductive terminals is configured by an elastic member such as a spring, and a contacting portion of the negative conductive terminal is urged by the elastic member to swing, whereby the contacting portion of the negative conductive terminal is pressingly contacted with a negative terminal. In a battery holding device having such a structure, a battery is housed by pressingly inserting the positive terminal into the battery holding device so as to be contacted with one of the positive conductive terminals, while the negative terminal is pressed against the contacting portion of the corresponding one of the negative conductive terminals (for example, see Japanese Patent No. 4138191).
The battery holding device disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4138191 includes a structure in which an engaging portion that engages a contacting portion of a negative conductive terminal with a sidewall portion of the battery holding device is disposed to suppress the contacting portion of the negative conductive terminal from largely protruding in a direction along which the contacting portion separates from the sidewall portion.
In the battery holding device disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4138191, however, the movement of the contacting portion of the negative conductive terminal in a direction intersecting with the swinging direction of the contacting portion of the negative conductive terminal is limited by the disposition of the engaging portion. In the case where the negative terminal is inserted into the battery holding device from a direction intersecting with the swinging direction of the contacting portion of the negative conductive terminal while pressing the positive terminal against the positive conductive terminal, therefore, there is a fear that the negative conductive terminal may be broken.